Private Contractors
by T.j.98
Summary: Two hundred and fifty years have passed since the defeat of The Combine. Between GLaDOS getting ambitious and The Combine returning, a mysterious man in a suit has his work cut out for him. Fortunately, he he has three employees capable of handling the problem and keeping his plans in order. This story will show how an unlikely team can work together to face unexpected challenges.
1. Chapter 1

Martin Bakalov squinted suspiciously into the black abyss which extended into the ground. He kicked a pebble into it, and listened as it tumbled down and down until it was utterly out of sight.

"Come on, best not to waste daylight."

He and his eighteen followers prodded along the ancient metal walkway which lead downward in a spiral along the concrete walls of the foreboding pit.

Martin did not shy away tasks easily. Being a foreman means taking risks and having a level head. It also means getting the job done. Martin did both of these things, and as such has always had a place at Compass Minerals.

The corporation was an old corporation, its oldest parts dating back four centuries. They supplied the majority of the salt used in the North American Quarter, as well as extracting various other minerals. They are able to meet the demand easily enough, but they can always use another mine. They had sent Martin to oversee the construction and management of this mine, so far that is exactly what he did. Once his prospectors deduced the best location for the actual mine, it was time to start digging. A mine was built, as was a mining office and a town for the workers and their families to live in (a total of five thousand people).

It was all going well, then one of the surveyors stumbled upon some ruins only a mile from the mining town.

They looked to be pre-Occupation ruins, so Martin decided to explore them to see if there was anything that can be used there. It is well known that the government pays a reward to anyone who finds hatchlings (cryogenically frozen humans) so that they can wake them up. Likewise, there might be a nuclear power generator down there, which can be used to provide electricity to the mining town if it still works.

The exploration consists of three teams of eighteen each. The first team is lead by Martin, and me it will be going directly through the front entrance and into the bowls of the ruins to see what might be down there. The second team will be doing the same except through the side entrance. The last team will be exploring the part of the ruins exposed to the surface.

As Martin lead his team deeper underground, they eventually had to activate the lights on their mining helmets. Martin walked at a regular pace, while the other miners followed him timidly.

One of them, a miner named Peter Kurtz, voiced his concern. "Martin, I think we should turn back. I have a bad feeling about this place."

"Pete, don't tell me you actually believe those fools in the township we passed. This facility isn't cursed or haunted; at worst its empty. Now come on, if there's a hatchling down there I am not going to lose the reward just because of superstition."

They continued going deeper and deeper, and were able to pick up a few things about this place. From decaying posters and eroded signs, the found that this used to be a laboratory named Aperture. From the abandoned and eroded state of the facility, they found that it came to an unsavory end some point before or during the Occupation Era.

After reaching what appears to be an office complex, they decided this was as good a location as any to rest and check up with the other two teams.

Martin turned on his walkie-talkie and tuned it to the first team.

"Jack, what did you find in your end?"

Jack's voice emitted from the device, bringing with it his answer. "We found a yard filled with what looks like a bunch of storage units."

"Find anything inside?"

"We tried opening one, but it wouldn't budge. We'll have to come back with stronger equipment and- wait, hold on, we found one that was knocked over. It looks like its door is opened."

"Well, tell me what you find."

"Ok, I'm going in. I'll need to throw a fuse inside and OH DEAR GOD!"

"Jack, what's happening?"

"There's a skeleton in here! These storage units are filled with dead people!"

Martin sighed disappointedly; the hatchlings must have spoiled.

"Jack, calm down."

Jack took a few deep breaths before responding, "Ok, I'm calm now. I -wait. What are those?"

"What is it Jack?"

Jack didn't respond; his signal turned to static.

Martin huffed with annoyance. "This is just great. Now his connection broke."

He switched the signal to the third team, but there was no response.

He was about to switch it off when a strange voice came through. It was no natural voice; it sounded artificial and metallic.

"It looks like I have some new test subjects."

Before Martin can react, he and his miners were surrounded. White mechanical creatures with strange guns stood all around the team. Not that the exploration team had any weapons with which to fight.

Martin tried to be calm so as to keep his team from panicking, but he was afraid thees metal ... things would try to kill him.

It would be much worse than that.


	2. Chapter 2

In the abysmal cold of the Moon, there is neither oxygen to breathe nor food to eat. The temperature is either blistering hot or freezing cold. No human could possibly survive here if he was exposed for longer than a few seconds.

However, Wheatley was no human.

This metal ball sat in a dark moon crater, the same one he landed in after his momentum ran out. All he could do was stare wistfully into the eternally black sky with his sole glowing blue eye. All it ever saw was the blackness, which was broken up only by a few stars scattered here and there. It all had a sense of emptiness and loneliness about it. A sort of isolation.

Being an artificial creature with steel and electricity in place of flesh and blood, Wheatley need not worry about the fact that he was in the coldest place in the solar system. He internally was able to ration what power was left in him to produce the 1.1 watts he needed to stay functional. A less simpleminded personality core would be worried about what will happen once this power runs out, but not Wheatley.

His main focus is how he attempted to murder his sole friend for no good reason. While at the time he was driven insane by the programming he was plugged into, that is not how his guilty stricken mind remembered it. The conclusion he came to was that he was simply a bad person. This supposed realization came as a surprise, as he had no desire to cause anyone harm before that moment.

He was alone with his thoughts, as the Space Core got hit by a small rock about two months ago. Wheatley last saw him hurtling into the black void. Since then he was alone with his thoughts and his guilt.

His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed something strange. Standing in the crater, a few feet in front of him, was a man in a suit.

Had Weatley been built of flesh and blood, he would have suspected he was seeing things and that this man was the onset of slow insanity. However, as Weatley was built of steel and wire, he did not question his own sanity. This is not to say he didn't have questions.

"Hello Weatley."

Those were the only words the man in the suit could say before Weatley let loose. He normally tended to talk more than he listened, and this case was no exception. In fact, since this is the first person Weatley had seen in a long time, this was intensified.

"Who are you? I don't think I've ever seen you before so I'm not quite sure how you know my name. Unless you're one of the people from Aperture. No ... that can't be it. There aren't any people left at aperture, and they never had a space program. Oh, I don't want to alarm you mate, but I think you forgot to bring your hemet and your spaceman suit. It gets bloody cold here and there's not a lot of breathing stuff here. What is it humans breathe? Methane? Carbon? Say, how did you get here? And how was I able to hear you if were in space?"

The man in the suit got strait to brass tacks. "I am not at liberty to disclose this information to you. I am here to offer you a place in my employment."

"You mean a job? I think you have the wrong personality core. I failed at everything I ever tried to do. I'm really just a big let down. Once I was in an important position, what a bloody mess that turned out to be. Someone once told me I was literally built for failure, but surly _she_ must have been lying. She always lies. "

The man in the suit cut in to continue speaking.

"I know about your work history, and it has been taken into consideration. I am still make this offer. Accept and I will take you to Earth, though I should warn you you won't be the same as when you left."

"And, just out of curiosity, what if I refuse?"

"I will leave you here, and you will die a slow and agonizing death. Alone."

"Wow ... do not want that. Can I think about this a moment?"

"Take all the time you need."

Wheatley considered his options, talking to himself. The man in the suit stood there patiently, for time was of no concern to him.

"Ok. Let's see what my options are. If I say yes, he'll take me to Earth. He said I would be changed, but I'm not exactly a prize to begin with. So maybe that's a good thing. And if I was on Earth, I could tell her I'm sorry for the whole trying to kill her thing. I mean, Earth's what, a thousand miles? It's almost assured we'll bump into each other sooner or later. Then what will I say? 'Hello, sorry about betraying and trying to murder you with spikes and grinders. Water under the bridge and all that.' There's no way she'll forgive me, not after what I did. She'll probably tell me to ... no, she won't say anything because the part of her brain that lets her speak got broken because she was asleep for a reallllly long time. Because I didn't wake her up every month like I was supposed to. The monitors that checked on the life functions of the patients broke for some reason, and I don't know why she didn't spoil like the other ones did. Still, anything is better than being up here. Ok, I'll do it."

The man in the suit replied. "Wise choice, Weatley."

"Hey, you wernt supposed to hear that. Granted, it was all out loud. But that's still rude because, well, I got nothing."

The man in the suit picked Weatley up, and placed him in Stasis.


End file.
